Fifty years ago, after the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, hundreds of thousands of refugees were fleeing Vietnam in search of freedom. Of the thousands that were received into the United States, and later during various waves of immigrants that arrived via different U.S. government sponsored programs during the 1980s, a large percentage were Catholic. Currently “over 2.4 million Vietnamese call the United States their home. Among them are there are over 700,000 Catholics.”[1]
Diocesan liturgy offices and parish music directors in the U.S. were in a need of a resource to welcome and worship with these newly arrived immigrants and their second generation. As a response, OCP released the first ever Catholic bilingual liturgical song booklet, Chung Lời Tán Tụng, in 2001. Consisting of 24 titles, the booklet gave music directors English and Vietnamese for such standard as “Christ, Be Our Light,” “Here I Am, Lord,” and Christmas and Easter selections for joint celebrations. English translations of some beloved songs in the Vietnamese repertoire were also included.
One of the most popular songs, available for the first time in English, was “Tình Chúa Cao Vời / Boundless Love” by Duy Thiên. After it debuted at the closing Mass of an annual conference in Southern California in April of 2000, the response was so enthusiastic that this pentatonic melody became a standard for multicultural celebrations in Southern California. It was included in the dedication of the Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in 2002. Watch a video clip of an interview with the composer (in Vietnam) and the incensing ritual of the dedication rite here.
To serve the growing intergenerational Vietnamese community in the U.S., OCP released Thánh Ca Dân Chúa in 2009. This hardbound hymnal included primarily Vietnamese songs and psalms, but some English and bilingual repertoire were also included, for the occasional bilingual Mass within that ethnic community.
To serve the increasingly diverse parish communities in the U.S., OCP started releasing selected trilingual octavos (English, Spanish, Vietnamese) for multicultural parish and diocesan celebrations. Vietnamese now enjoy singing such titles as “Resucitó,” “Ubi Caritas” (Bob Hurd), and “These Alone Are Enough,” in their native language, and the music director can rotate verses between the various languages.
For the choir director who wishes to go a step further and have the English- and Spanish-speaking members of the combined ‘unity choir’ join the Vietnamese singers in singing a short phrase in their language, OCP has provided pronunciation videos of selected titles. Click here to listen to Paul Nguyen guide you, and to ‘be not afraid’
[1] Statement of the Federation of Vietnamese Catholics in the USA, On the 50 Year Remembrance, April 30, 1975. Released by the Federation of Vietnamese Catholics in the USA, March 12, 2025.